The Effectiveness of Vegetative Swale on Surface Runoff at Construction Sites

The main objective of this project is to reduce the water pollution from construction
site by implementing the green construction concept. The temporary drainages from
construction sites; especially during construction stage, contain quite an amount of
pollutants; chemically and physically, as the runoff was resulted from the non source
point. When it enters the water body, pollutants are brought in as well, affecting the
earth, the aquatic system and also the human being. This project is focusing on
reducing the amount of pollutants from the construction site's drain before it enters
and merge with other existing drainage systems. The scope of this study is to research
on the previous water-quality based projects that can be improvised to suit for the
green construction concept then followed by designing suitable vegetative swale
model. The water from two residential constructions sites nearby were collected and
checked in the laboratory to determine the respective water quality parameters i.e.,
Total Suspended Solid (TSS), Turbidity, Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD),
Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), Nitrate (N03), Metals (Zink & Iron) and pH. The
parameters then compared with the standards available in Malaysia. Then, a model of
vegetative swale is constructed to experiment the removal efficiency of those
parameters. It was found that vegetative swale is effective in removing pollutants i.e.,
96% Zinc, 52.8% Iron, 85.4% COD and 80.8% TSS, from construction sites. This
project concluded that the vegetative swale has significantly improved the water
quality standard by neutralizing it from Class V to Class III.